Hi folks, I've been lurking awhile and reading here and other forums and I decided to register to see if you folks can help me out. I found that my employer will pay 75% of tuition for two classes (as long as the school is accredited and something that would enhance my job. I work as a night shift computer operator doing AS/400 backups & such.) That is great and all, but unfortunately my work schedule doesn't leave time for going to a brick & mortar school. I work 7 on 7 off nights, so when I'm on my shift I basically have time to sleep, eat and work. It'd be nice to find a school that my employer would help pay for, but it's not entirely necessary. Some background: I've never finished a semester of college. I just couldn't get into the big university lifestyle. I do have two certifications, A+ and Network +. There is a local university that does CLEP testing so I can definitely do that. I often have quite a bit of free time at work while waiting for various jobs to complete and can use that time to do online school work. I'm somewhat interested in the Information Security track that Excelsior has now, but my only local Prometric test center stopped giving tests a year or so ago. So any Excelsior tests I'd have to take would be given to me 100 miles away. Any ideas on other programs I should check out? I'm pretty sure if something isn't class based my workplace will turn down, but it's worth a shot. And if this seems like rambling please attribute that to a lack of sleep.
You can earn a Bachelor of Arts in Computing from DePaul University via 100% distance learning. http://www.snlonline.net/index.asp Take my advice and complete the general education courses early in the programme otherwise there is a tendency to focus on the "interesting courses" leaving the other required courses uncompleted.
Thanks for the info! I should state further that I'm looking for a Bachelor's of Science, and also I'm not making the big bucks where I'm at so I'll probably have to get a loan if the stuff costs too much.
http://www.colsouth.edu/index.html Columbia Southern University has an online BS Information Technology degree for $125 a credit hour. It looks like they would also help you get credit for the A+ and Network+ certifications (although many schools will help you because both those programs are, I think, ACE evaluated.) When I was looking for online schools a couple years ago I went through their admissions process, they were very helpful and I got an acceptance letter, but I ultimately choose to go somewhere else.
Just checked out Columbia Southern...looks like a good deal! I will definitely consider them. Thanks dlady!
who has experience with Columbia Southern? I have a couple questions: How are their courses given? Do they accept CLEPS/Dantes etc.? Do they give credits for Microsoft and Cisco certs? Do they have accelerated courses? Thanks Brandon
FYI - I just noticed that they are "only" DETC accredited. Besides that the course format (online or text based) and 10 week course length sound pretty interesting.
